As you may or may not have noticed Christmas is coming rather quickly; in 33 days at the time of writing this post. And there are many preparations to be made in readiness for the big day.
This weekend is one of the milestones on the way to Christmas as it is traditionally known as Stir up Sunday. This is the day when we should all be gathering and stirring up the required ingredients to make our Christmas puddings.
This is still celebrated in churches, though not as much as it once was, as a day to think about being stirred up by God. In the book of Deuteronomy Moses uses the illustration of an eagle stirring up its nest in order to encourage the young eagle chicks (there must be a proper name for a young eagle, any answers appreciated) to leave the nest and learn to fly.
During this process the mother eagle rips up the comfortable matting of the nest to expose the thorns underneath and may even give the young eagles (missing a proper name again) out of the nest. Whilst this seems maybe a little cruel, she knows that it is essential that her young learn how to fly, and this is the only way.
In our lives we may often feel like the comfortable world we know gets stirred up and the thorns exposed, and sometimes feel like we are being nudged out of our comfort zones.
But our God knows that we all need to learn to fly and very often we only grow in this way through the most uncomfortable and painful feeling times.
The greatest part of the eagle analogy is that after the mother eagle has nudged the chicks out of the nest, she swoops down to catch them again and again until they learn to fly for themselves.
What ever you are facing today, even if it feels like you are falling from your nest, God will always swoop down and carry you on his wings that will always keep us safe.
Have a great day
God bless
Chris
Friday 23 November 2012
Friday 16 November 2012
Nandos
Yesterday I had a very nice lunch with a couple of friends in Nottingham. It was a great time spent catching up, sharing thoughts and ideas; encouraging each other and praying together. This took place over an hour or so spent in a Nandos restaurant.
To make myself very clear, I had a great meal, the food tasted really good and this is not an article criticizing the Nandos chain in any way. I do have, however, a small issue with a restaurant that only serves chicken. I love chicken and may well have ordered chicken anyway. I would have liked to choose from steak, lamb, pork, and vegetarian options etc as well.
And if God was designing a restaurant, I don't think he would come up with anything like Nandos. My reason is simple; I think God is all about variety and abundance and creativity. There is not a single way to live our lives in a God honoring way, in the same way that there is not one single correct way of 'doing' church.
I think that God is interested in all aspects of our lives and wants us to live for him in millions of different ways.
A simple message today with a simple prayer for anyone reading - may God bless you in every way in everything that you do.
Have a great day
Chris
To make myself very clear, I had a great meal, the food tasted really good and this is not an article criticizing the Nandos chain in any way. I do have, however, a small issue with a restaurant that only serves chicken. I love chicken and may well have ordered chicken anyway. I would have liked to choose from steak, lamb, pork, and vegetarian options etc as well.
And if God was designing a restaurant, I don't think he would come up with anything like Nandos. My reason is simple; I think God is all about variety and abundance and creativity. There is not a single way to live our lives in a God honoring way, in the same way that there is not one single correct way of 'doing' church.
I think that God is interested in all aspects of our lives and wants us to live for him in millions of different ways.
A simple message today with a simple prayer for anyone reading - may God bless you in every way in everything that you do.
Have a great day
Chris
Tuesday 6 November 2012
Post match analysis
If you have ever watched 'Match of the Day' or a similar sports tv show, then you will be familiar with the post match analysis.
This comes, obviously, after the game has been played when a pundit, player or manager, shares their view on how the match has gone for their team.
A succesful manager may give a review along the lines of, "our training paid off, we stuck to the game plan and it was the result we deserved". On the other hand, the manager of the loosing team may say, "we didn't get the run of the ball, we didn't take our chances and the other team simply out-played us".
In 2 Timothy 4:1-8 Paul is writing a letter as he sits in jail expecting his life to come to an end at any time, and he provides us with an analysis of his life to this point.
The passage can be found here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20tim%204:1-8&version=NIV
Paul states with assurance that he has "fought the good fight ... finished the race ... kept the faith".
When we get to the post match analysis of our lives or even looking back on what we've done so far, can we all say the same?
Have a great day
God Bless
Chris
This comes, obviously, after the game has been played when a pundit, player or manager, shares their view on how the match has gone for their team.
A succesful manager may give a review along the lines of, "our training paid off, we stuck to the game plan and it was the result we deserved". On the other hand, the manager of the loosing team may say, "we didn't get the run of the ball, we didn't take our chances and the other team simply out-played us".
In 2 Timothy 4:1-8 Paul is writing a letter as he sits in jail expecting his life to come to an end at any time, and he provides us with an analysis of his life to this point.
The passage can be found here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20tim%204:1-8&version=NIV
Paul states with assurance that he has "fought the good fight ... finished the race ... kept the faith".
When we get to the post match analysis of our lives or even looking back on what we've done so far, can we all say the same?
Have a great day
God Bless
Chris
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)